Flash!! The
voting is done and the new members of the
International Drag Racing Hall of Fame have been notified so I can now tell
you who they are. The class of 2014 will include Top Fuel star and Indy champ Johnny Abbott, driver and race car
fabricator Al Bergler,
two-time Funny Car champion Frank Hawley,
one of the true pioneers in the sport Tom
Hoover, the "Professor" of Pro Stock Warren
Johnson and drag racing's biggest supporter in recent years Forrest Lucas. We'll have more on all
of them later and watch for an official announcement coming soon.

Reading winners: Coughlin, Smith, Langdon and Force

After four races in four weeks the NHRA Mello Yello Series is off for a week, two actually, before
returning to action in Las Vegas.
That will be, to coin a phrase, the penultimate race on the 2013 NHRA tour and
it will certainly go a long way toward deciding the season's champions. Right
now Shawn Langdon, John Force, Jeg Coughlin and Matt Smith
are the point's leaders and they are in the driver's seat, literally and
figuratively, as the tour heads into its final two races. Since three of them
have won championships before it looks like the real pressure may be on Shawn
who has never been a Mello Yello champ. Of course he did win the Super Comp
title in 2008 and he shared the big stage with Jeg who won the Pro Stock crown
that year, so it looks like he knows how to handle the rigors of a stretch
drive. I hope so because he will need it in the weeks ahead.

With the national event tour taking a break there will be a lot of
focus on Bakersfield
and the California Hot Rod Reunion
this week. That event, now twenty-two years old, will honor several of the
greats in the automobile world and this year's honorees cover a wide range of
involvement in the sport. For the first time in several years I won't be there
and I sure will miss it. I have often said that if you can only attend one
event during the year it would be the Friday night gathering at the California
Hot Rod Reunion. Yes, it's that nice! It is like a "Who's Who" of drag racing
and is truly one of the great gatherings of the season. Of course the
Cacklefest on Saturday night is special, too, and I will miss being a part of
that this year. I would like to acknowledge those who will be honored this week
and I think you will agree that it is a very worthy group.

Butch
Leal, the "California Flash," will be the Grand Marshall and that is
quite an honor. Butch drove a wide variety of cars during his career and was
successful with all of them. He was so talented with the four-speed
transmission that he was picked to drive a Ford Thunderbolt for Mickey Thompson and he promptly won the
SS/S class at the U.S. Nationals. After that he drove one of the earliest
altered-wheelbase Plymouth Funny Cars and he was just as good at that as he was
with the Ford. Did you know
that his fuel-injected Barracuda was one of the few unblown cars that actually
ran in the seven-second range? When Pro Stock came about in 1970 Butch returned
to his first love, full-bodied, stock appearing cars and he continued to rack

Tommy Allen with crew Photo by tim Marshall

up wins. With the famous Nationwise Rod
Shop team of Gil Kirk he won
seven races and finished as high as second in the points. Did you know that overall Butch appeared in thirty-one NHRA
national event final rounds? He made a total of twenty-five of those finals in
Pro Stock and did you know
that ranks seventeenth on the all-time Pro Stock list? After retiring from the
sport Butch dabbled in everything from underwater exploration to golf, and not
surprisingly he did well at all of those endeavors, too.

Tommy
"The Watchdog" Allen was one of the great pioneers in the early days of the dragster
classes. From his formative years with a record setting D/G car to his years
with Larry Huff and their series of
dragsters, Tommy was as good as they came in the sport. The team had great
success at tracks in and around their home base and did you know that they hit the pinnacle of the sport when
they became the first team to set the national speed record above 210 miles per

John Carlori

hour. They did that at Carlsbad Raceway in April of 1966 when they peaked at
212.76 mph. Several years later, while driving for Byron Blair, Tommy won the AHRA World Finals when he beat Preston Davis in the final round at Bee Line Dragway. Tommy retired from
driving in the early 1970's but returned with one of his old partners, Larry
Huff, on the "Pure Hell" Fuel altered team, and most recently he restored the Soapy Sales dragster and you can see
that at most of the West Coast Cacklefest events.

Roy
Brizio may not be a household name at the drag strips but the Brizio
name is certainly revered in the hot rod industry. Roy, who will be honored
this week, is the son of a former CHRR honoree, Andy Brizio, and he has carried on his father's legacy of building
unbelievable cars. Did you know
that Roy's cars have claimed the title of "America's Most
Beautiful Roadster" on two
occasions? He also built a car for Jack
Calori that won the custom class at the historic Pebble Beach Concours
d'Elegance. I had the pleasure of visiting Roy's shop last year and it truly was a day
that I will never forget. Not only were the cars fantastic but Roy's
hospitality was unbelievable and he showed me some of the legendary cars that
were housed at the San Francisco
location. Among them was the famous George
Barris creation, the "Ala Kart" show rod, along with many others. His unique
talent has earned him a spot as an honoree at this year's Hot Rod Reunion. By
the way, I want to thank Roy
for the gift of a really cool jacket that he gave me after my visit. It has a
special place of honor in my collection.

A name that is very familiar to drag racers as well as car
enthusiasts around the country is Jim
DeFrank. Not only does he own a fleet of very quick and fast Super Stock cars
he is also the owner of the famous California
Car Cover Company, a company that makes products to keep your race car,
street car or show car looking great. And on the track his son, Jimmy, has
proven to be as successful with his racing as Jim is with his business. With
four NHRA World Championships to his credit the young DeFrank is counted among
the best racers in the sport. His brother, Tony, isn't too bad either, although
these days he spends most of his time at the family's business. The elder
DeFrank has owned a variety of street rods as well as race cars and he is as
much at home at a car show as he is a drag strip. The DeFrank name has been
synonymous with great race cars and wonderful car care products for years, and
it's the addition of men like Jim to the CHRR honoree list that makes this
event so special. He is a special man who makes everyone around feel like they
have been his friend for years, and I know because he made me feel that way.

Larry Dixon sr. on the cover of Hot rod magazine.

Larry
Dixon Sr. is also among the honorees and it is a tribute that is richly
deserved. A familiar figure around the San Fernando Valley
in the early 1960's, Larry's career started with a 1955 Chevrolet and
culminated with a win at the Winternationals in 1970. Among the other
highlights of his career was a win at the Hot
Rod Magazine Championship race in 1969 and a win at the prestigious PDA
meet at Orange Country International Raceway. Did you know that when you won the Hot Rod Magazine race, a
very special event at the time, you earned a spot on the cover of Hot Rod Magazine?
Larry beat Steve Carbone in one of
the classic final rounds of all time, and if you get a chance this weekend ask
him about it because I know he will love telling the story. When most of the
Top Fuel cars of the day were powered by the classic Chrysler Hemi engine Larry
drove a Chevy-powered dragster that ran in the five-second zone and put Larry
into the Cragar 5-Second Club. Larry
retired from driving in 1979 and spends a lot of his time today driving
restored versions of his old cars as well as watching his son, Larry, race and
win..As a side note the first year that I went to Indy Larry was there driving
the spectacular Smirnoff Special,
one of the most beautiful dragsters ever built.

John Rasmussen's car on the cover of Hot Rod, March, 1959.

The final name on the list for this weekend is John Rasmussen, another Southern California racer who grew up in the hotbed of
drag racing and who spent a lot of time with some of the future greats of the
sport like John Peters and Gene Adams. Peters, whose "Freight
Train" dragster was legendary in the 1960's, tabbed John as one of the drivers
for the famous car. And Gene Adams,
a wizard in the tuning department, added John to his team and they competed in
both the fuel and the gas classes. In addition to driving John also loved
street rods and his car was so nice that it was on the cover of Hot Rod
Magazine in 1959, and he didn't even have to win a race to get on the cover!

The California Hot Rod Reunion has become one of the "must see"
events for drag racing fans and it attracts a wide variety of participants,
spectators and vendors and I can highly recommend it to you. Congratulations to
the honorees and to everyone who has made this such a special event on the drag
racing calendar.

Bill Alexander in the Hippo-Brissette-Alexander dragster.

Since the CHRR is a place to honor some of the real legends in the
sport I would like to mention two who passed away recently. John Menzler, who was involved in many aspects
of the sport and who was a friend to racers coast to coast, passed away after a
long battle with cancer. As far back as the mid 1970's John was working with
Centerline Wheels and helping racers perform better on the track. From Dart
Engines to Comp Cams John traveled across the country where, according to his
friend Jim White, "he made friends
everywhere he went." He was voted SEMA "Man of the Year" two years ago and he
worked tirelessly to make life better for car enthusiasts of all kinds. When he
was presented with his award it was said that "John cares about the industry
and channeled that into action and he made a difference everywhere he went."
Those who knew him know how true that is. John was 67 and he will be missed by
everyone in the automotive industry, both on and off the track..We also lost "Wild Bill" Alexander earlier this
month. Bill drove the famous Ernie's
Camera dragster, a short-wheelbase car that was as good as any in the sport
at the time. He was also one of the drivers of the "Freight Train" gas
dragster, and with Jim Brissette they
entered the record books in 1964 when they broke the 200 mile per hour barrier
at San Fernando and they followed that with big
speed runs at Pomona and Fontana. After a long absence from the sport
Bill returned to the nostalgia circuit and he won the famed March Meet in 2000.
"Wild Bill" was one of the best and he will be missed..One of the truly special
and moving moments at the "Reunion" is when they acknowledge all of those who
passed away during the past year and John and Bill will be part of that list
this year.

Next week we'll concentrate on the final two races of the NHRA
season, but for now try to make the reunion and have a great time.